ARCTIC ECOSYSTEMS IN PERIL: REPORT OF THE ARCTIC GOOSE HABITAT WORKING
GROUP

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

In some Arctic areas, over-abundance of several populations of
Arctic-nesting geese in North America is causing extensive damage to
habitats used by these geese and other wildlife. Mid-continent white goose
populations are expanding at an average rate of 5%/year. Most of the major
mid-continent white goose nesting colonies are being impacted and the
damage is expanding annually. The prime causes of these population
increases are human-induced changes to the agricultural landscape and
changes in refuge provision during wintering and staging periods that lead
to high winter survival and recruitment. The birds have effectively been
released from winter carrying capacity restraints that sustained
populations at lower levels before agriculture changed the North American
landscape.

Over-grazing and over-grubbing by geese causes changes in soil salinity
and moisture levels that lead to severe environmental degradation of the
affected Arctic landscapes, conditions that will alter plant community
structure and succession and prohibit the original plant communities from
being restored. Large portions of the Arctic ecosystem are threatened with
irreversible ecological degradation. Plant communities associated with
goose breeding habitat are finite in area and distribution and will likely
be permanently lost unless there is effective human-induced intervention
to reduce the size of certain goose populations.

The Working Group recommends that the Canadian Wildlife Service and the
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service assign full-time coordinators to oversee
implementation and evaluation of effective strategies to reduce
mid-continent white geese to about half their current population. This
major program could be advanced under an Arctic Goose Management
Initiative overseen by the Arctic Goose Joint Venture. A crucial component
of the initiative is the development and delivery of an effective
communications strategy to inform the public at-large of the problems
caused by over-abundant mid-continent white goose populations. The Arctic
Goose Habitat Working Group should be retained as expert consultants and
reviewers of the progress of the Initiative.

Population modelling, using mid-continent lesser snow goose data,
indicates that the most effective interventions should be focused on
reducing adult survival as it is the main demographic parameter driving
population growth rates. The Working Group adopted the principle that any
interventions should respect the birds as valuable components of the
environment in general and as game animals and food. Population reduction
methods that did not allow geese that were killed to be used as food were
rejected. Interventions to reduce recruitment can only be effective if
delivered on a massive scale that is not seen to be practical or cost
effective. Reductions in adult survival is the most important demographic
component to be addressed on breeding, staging and wintering areas.

The Working Group recommends that the goal of the Arctic Goose
Management Initiative be to reduce mid-continent white goose numbers by 5
- 15% each year. Several control methods are described in the report, all
of which can remove adult geese from the population and all of which
should be considered in some places at some times. Most of them have been
used in the past by hunters but were regulated against to provide the
birds extra protection during an earlier era when the management goal was
to increase populations. All of them involve the participation of
traditional hunters who we view as being a highly motivated, well-equipped
and economical labor force with an already widely-demonstrated commitment
to waterfowl conservation.

We urge that the following practices be implemented by the fall of 1997
in time for the 1997/1998 mid-continent lesser snow goose hunting season:
1) legalize the use of electronic calling devices for snow goose hunting;
2) legalize baiting in special snow goose population reduction seasons,
and; 3) provide additional snow goose hunting in and around state,
provincial and federal refuges.

Additionally, we urge the Federal agencies to extend the harvest of snow
geese for southern hunters beyond the current restrictions (March 10) in
the Migratory Bird Treaty. This should be done as soon as possible - we
would hope within a year of the delivery of this report. Northern native
residents already have the right to harvest geese for the remainder of the
year as prescribed by the Canadian Constitution. Native Canadians should
be contacted and recruited, as soon as possible, to seek their
participation in the management of mid-continent white geese.

This report includes an outline for an evaluation strategy which should
be further developed and implemented as soon as possible. However, changes
in regulations controlling white goose harvest should not be held up until
an evaluation program is fully in place. It is important for managers to
gain experience with the implementation of the Arctic Goose Management
Initiative and there will undoubtedly be a time lag between promulgation
of new regulations and the effective involvement of hunters who have
limited experience with some of the new tools and time frames for hunting.
There is virtually no risk of a management error causing over-harvest of
mid-continent white geese within the next several years, even if all the
above practices were implemented within the very near future. At the same
time, it is important that the numbers of mid-continent white geese be
reduced, as soon as possible, to a level that can be sustained by their
Arctic habitats.